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Essay / Feeling and reason and their relationship in The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
“Feeling” is the descriptor for “Reason”. Looking at the way Werther talks about his emotions in relation to Charlotte, it can be seen that “feeling” is precisely what modifies “reason”. The two are not separate; they must go together. It is similar to the relationship between verbs and adverbs. An adverb cannot describe anything other than a verb. The adverb is what dictates how the verb will be executed. In the same way, feelings dictate how a person will reason. Werther's descriptions of how he feels about Charlotte are indicators of how he will handle her situation. Because he feels pain because of this love, he also reasons painfully. It could be said that by committing suicide he simply acted on his emotions and feelings, and therefore did not use reason at all. But Werther's feelings only strengthened his reason. If he had positive feelings, he might have done something so drastic, but in a happy way rather than a depressed way. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay In The Sorrows of Young Werther, Werther foreshadows his own death by recounting how Charlotte's absence makes him sad and penalty. He describes how his reason will evolve in the future. For now, however, all the reader can see is just this description. Werther says: “Sometimes I don't know if I really exist. If at such moments I find no sympathy and Charlotte does not allow me to enjoy the melancholy consolation of bathing her hand in my tears, I feel obliged to tear myself away from her. To put it more clearly, he says that sometimes he's not sure he exists, and in those moments, if no one is there to feel bad for him and he can't comfort himself by crying in Charlotte's hand, then he would. I'd rather not be there at all. This almost makes Werther appear selfish. It's like he's saying that if things don't go the way he wants them to, he doesn't want to live. It’s like everything has to be perfect at all times. These selfish feelings lead to a selfish alteration of one's reason. This quote also shows him as naive because he does not see that things can be imperfect. Werther also describes how he will reason dramatically. Suicide is a very big and bold statement, a bit like what Werther says about Charlotte: "The consolation that Charlotte can bring to a sick person I experience with my own heart, which suffers more from her absence than good poor creatures lingering on a bed. of illness.” Again, to rephrase, what Werther is saying is that he has experienced firsthand how Charlotte can comfort a weak-minded person, and without her he suffers more than a person who is on the verge of death . Not only is this very dramatic, and another indicator of how he will react later, but it also speaks to his selfishness and naivety. To say that a dying creature cannot suffer more than him is self-centered. The naive side of his statement is that he speaks of death as if he knows what it feels like and can therefore compare it to something. His dramaturgy makes him forget these facts. In addition to his selfishness and naivety, and as we have already said, Werther foreshadows his death by speaking of the pain that Charlotte's absence causes him. But his greatest moment of foreshadowing in the book occurs when he says, “Where am I going?” I will tell you with complete confidence. I have to stay here for another fortnight, and thenI think it would be better if I visited the mines of…. But I am only deluding myself. . . ". He doesn't know where he is going, which can be said to be similar to death. For those who believe that humans have an inner self that disappears at death, there is no certainty as to what happens to the human soul after death, if anything at all. Werther says he feels obligated to keep fighting for Charlotte's affections for a little while longer, but then he has to return to the real world. However, he then says that he is "deluding himself", as if he knows deep down that he would never go back to disliking Charlotte. The same can be said of death. Once a person's body, or in the case of Werther's suicide, just a person, commits to death, there is no turning back. A switch cannot be flipped to put things back the way they were. This statement foreshadows his suicide in that it can be read as a description of death. Another point made by this quote is that Werther is not as naive as one might think. Even though he doesn't know a lot of things, he knows enough about himself to say that his mind won't leave Charlotte. Werther continues: “. . . The point is, I just want to be near Charlotte again, that's all. I smile at the suggestions of my heart and obey its precepts.” He fails to see that the heart is the source of these descriptors of reason. It is as if the brain provides a pure and impartial reason that will find the safest and most effective solution, and the heart is a machine that produces feelings to modify this purity. We cannot simply obey one over the other. They work in pairs, and choosing to only obey their feelings will only do harm. Werther's death is not only caused by his depression because of Charlotte, but it is also caused by his lack of healthy management. . Charlotte, on the other hand, knows exactly how to handle this and proves it by saying, “We talked about the joys of dancing. "If it is a fault to love it," said Charlotte, "I am ready to confess that I appreciate it above all other amusements. If anything bothers me, I go to the piano, I play a tune to which I danced, and it all starts again." . . ". She doesn't act on the first negative thought that comes to mind. When she feels like something is bothering her, she does what many people might do today and turns to music to calm herself. It prevents negative thoughts in order to avoid negative reasoning. This shows that she is aware of this “adverb-verb” relationship between her feelings and her logic. Werther then continues: “. . . You, who know me, can imagine with what firmness I looked into his rich dark eyes during these remarks, how my soul rejoiced at his warm lips and his fresh, luminous cheeks, how I completely lost myself in the delicious meaning of his words. , so much so that I barely heard the actual expressions.” It's almost as if Charlotte is the Enlightenment and Werther is Romanticism. Werther is so fascinated by Charlotte that he doesn't understand what she means. He notes that Charlotte likes the piano and dancing, but focuses more on things like her eyes and lips. He does not see that Charlotte is doing these activities because they are neutralizing for her. They attenuate the drastic descriptors that certain events can evoke in order to improve one's reason. It's as if there is a spectrum of reason, and feelings indicate whether one is high or low. Charlotte's music puts her back on the right track, while Werther's preoccupation and infatuation take him lower and lower each time...